Learn French: Elle a convoqué les directrices, mais elles ne sont pas toutes venues. - She convened the directors f, but they did not all come.

Elle a convoqué les directrices, mais elles ne sont pas toutes venues.

She convened the directors (f), but they did not all come.

Breakdown of Elle a convoqué les directrices, mais elles ne sont pas toutes venues.

Questions & Answers about Elle a convoqué les directrices, mais elles ne sont pas toutes venues.

Why do we use toutes here instead of tous?

Toutes is a pronoun here meaning "all of them". Because it refers back to les directrices (a feminine plural noun), it must agree in gender and number. If the group were mixed or all male, you would use tous.

Where exactly does the pronoun toutes go in this negative past tense sentence?

In compound tenses like the passé composé, short pronouns like toutes and tous are placed between the conjugated auxiliary verb and the past participle. Because this is a negative sentence, it goes right after pas and before venues.

Is the final letter s in toutes pronounced in this sentence?

No. While the pronoun tous has a strongly pronounced final s to distinguish it from the adjective, the s in toutes is always silent. You just pronounce the final t sound, exactly like the singular toute.

Why does the past participle venues have an -es at the end?